An anti-litter charity has named the companies whose products are most frequently found littering the streets and rural roads of Northern Ireland. The list is dominated by major firms such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and other popular brands of sweets and fizzy drinks.
Products made by Coca-Cola were found 80,000 times in a litter survey conducted by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. Other common items included the energy drink Boost, Lucozade, chewing gum, and Mars and Cadbury's chocolate.
The report builds on a survey from last year and names the firms whose products were most regularly littered. Chief Executive Ian Humphreys called for new legislation to place greater responsibility on producers to deal with litter. 'They must contribute fairly to both education and awareness raising campaigns and the huge street cleaning bill currently being met by ratepayers, whether or not they buy those products,' he said.
In total, seven producers are estimated to be responsible for just over half of the branded litter on Northern Ireland's streets. The report noted that if cigarette butts could be identified by brand, major tobacco companies would have ranked much higher.
Plastic continues to be a significant problem, accounting for almost half of all rubbish dropped or binned. More than 100,000 sweet papers and a similar number of plastic bottles were recorded. Single-use coffee cups from Barista Bar, McDonald's, and Costa were also regularly discarded.
The report estimates that at any one time, there are 1.3 million pieces of litter on Northern Ireland's streets. The UK's Environment Bill, which would grant new powers making producers responsible for their packaging throughout the supply chain, is currently making its way through parliament but has been delayed and is not expected to become law before autumn. Stormont will also need to give its consent for the bill to be extended to Northern Ireland.
